Despite working in television and film since 2005, Yolanda didn’t really make a dent on the media until 2014, when she appeared in a guest role in Doctor Who. The part of Journey Blue earned her rave reviews and a few more fans, and the press began to sit up and take notice. Prior to that, she had a small group of fans on Tumblr who loved her thanks to Fresh Meat (and to a lesser extent, Skins) but they were few. Her part in Skins in the late 2000s didn’t serve to conjure up any interest from the world either - she wasn’t one of the actors pushed forward to become “the next big thing”, and she was happy enough with that; at that point she didn’t have the confidence to go to photoshoots or premieres on her own, even though she’d been on television.

Her appearance in Doctor Who allowed her to become exposed to a larger fandom, and when she landed the part of Tulip O’Hare in the television adaptation of Preacher, she unwittingly took them with her. The media view her as a quiet, somewhat meek actress who smiles at the right time and has yet to put a foot out of line. It’s wildly inaccurate, but she’s played the game and melted into the background in order to promote her co-stars in practically every project she’s ever been in - until now. Her engagement (from 2013 to early 2016) to a non-famous male meant that no one was ever interested in following her around to take pictures, nor would they have earned any traction in the press if said photographs had existed. Essentially, her career trajectory has only begun to rise in the last year, with the buzz surrounding the upcoming Preacher series and the release of her latest film, Loving, with the latter earning her rave reviews. Whether she’ll remain the near-silent, smiling actress remains to be seen, but given the opportunity to be pushed into the foreground, she certainly has enough about her nowadays to speak her mind - to a point.

x. Born and raised in Finchley, near Charing Cross in London, Yolanda has three half-siblings, all younger: Kyle, Maisie, and Jeanine. Her father, Kevin, died in a drink-driving accident in 1991, when Yolanda was five years old, and her mother Colette was remarried to Allen two years later. Yolanda retained her father\s surname both legally and later professionally; it wasn’t a case of spitting in her stepfather’s face, as she adores him, but rather attempting to keep her dad’s memory alive in any way she could.

x. Her mother is one of five children born to a Nigerian couple who came to London in the 1960s. Colette was born in Nigeria but came to London with her parents when she was very small, and Yolanda’s father’s ethnicity was white British, as he hailed from Belfast in Northern Ireland. Yolanda herself has spoken in passing during interviews about being one of the only mixed race children at the secondary school she attended, and how she had few friends because of it.

x. Professionally, Yolanda goes by Yolanda Bennett, and most people know her as Yoli, including her friends and family. That said, her mother and grandmother still call her Yolanda and probably always will, and Yoli herself is always Yolanda when she thinks about herself. She’s Yolanda on her passport, too. She’s not especially fond of her name, and toyed with the idea of changing it when she joined Equity, but eventually refrained because she worried it might break her mother’s heart.

x. Yolanda left Finchley at the age of eighteen to go to the University of Bristol. It was in Bristol that she auditioned for her first TV role, which ended up being Jal in Skins. She was a little older than the rest of the cast by a couple of years - already past her eighteenth birthday by the time they started shooting - and as such, she felt somewhat protective of them. When they appeared in the press, she would make a point of showing everyone good reviews and tried to hide them from any criticism. She’s not in touch with everyone from her generation of the show any more, but those she is still in contact with are among the people she holds most dear. They went through quite an experience together when they were young. Time and distance doesn’t erase that.

x. At twenty-five, in 2010, she was cast as the role most people think of when you say her name (that is, if they can place her): Vod, in the university flatmate sitcom Fresh Meat. It was a similar ambience to life on Skins; the cast were all extremely close, and far from holding a kinship with her gruff character, Yolanda cried her eyes out when they filmed the final ever episode in late 2015. She genuinely loves her cast-mates, and despite being busy, working people, they\ve thus far managed to all stay in regular contact.

x. After appearing in one episode of Doctor Who in 2014, Yolanda was amazed by how quickly her star ascended. She began to be recognised in the street and on the tube, and was even invited to various Comic Cons. So far she’s been too busy to accept any of these offers for that specific role, but has appeared with her Preacher cast-mates at a couple of conventions, and absolutely loved the enthusiasm and excitement the fans there showed for all the guests. She was also astonished by how easy it was to make the fans happy. Sign a notebook, put your arm around them for a picture, give them a hug if they ask for it. Some of them went away in happy tears, and this was before Preacher had aired in full. Yolanda was bowled over by the reception she and her cast-mates got - all of it based on just the screening of the trailer for the show.